In many industrial, commercial, and scientific applications, a 360-degree panoramic imaging device is an important device for creating virtual reality content. Generally, the panoramic imaging device may include a plurality of cameras (e.g., 6, 12, or 16 cameras) in a circular array to capture images of scenes within 360°, so that the images of scenes may be combined into planar panoramic images by a method for generating the panoramic images. With a plurality of consecutive panoramic images being generated, a panoramic video may be further produced.
The panoramic imaging device may further generate stereoscopic panoramic images and videos, in additional to two-dimensional panoramic images and videos.
With the large number of images captured by the cameras, a huge flow of data has to be processed in order to generate panoramic images and videos. Even more processing capability is required to generate three-dimensional videos. Generally, however, the panoramic imaging device has only limited computing resources at its disposal, and may take a long time to process all images. Thus, user experience may be unsatisfactory due to the long processing time.
Embodiments of the disclosure address the above problem by providing an improved method and device for generating panoramic images.